When you need to negotiate personal injury settlements, you negotiate with the insurance carrier or you file personal injury lawsuits by going to court. No matter what the case is, the procedure is quite straightforward, even if the claim is not always so.
With bus accidents, things get complicated really fast. You need the services of bus accident attorneys in Detroit because there are countless things that could be a part of the case. When injured and you are a passenger, you can make claims with the insurer of the at-fault driver and you can look for compensation if you faced losses, like with lost income and medical expenses, together with noneconomic losses that would cover suffering and pain.
When the fault is of the bus driver, the law is even more complicated. Buses are operated and owned in most cases by government entities. This includes public transportation bureaus and school districts. Filing injury claims with government bodies is very complicated.
To make matters even more complex, procedures can vary a lot from one jurisdiction to the next. Typically, you have to start with a notice of claim. You basically go after the government entity that might be liable for what happened. Usually, documentation needs to be filed in quite a short time so acting fast is very important.
Filing The Notice Of Claim
There are strict, specific procedural rules you have to follow when you file a notice of claims with the government. This does vary from one location to another. The attorney you hire can help guarantee that you do this correctly but in most cases, this notice of claim needs to include the following:
- Your statement in which you present your intent to look for injury compensation or/and property damages due to the government agency or entity’s negligence. The same goes when going after a government agent, employee, or officer.
- A thorough description of accident circumstances, place, and time.
- Details about the losses you suffered.
- Your address and name.
You need to file your injury claim within a specific time limit. Unfortunately, every municipality or state has specific limits. Also, you might need to submit the claim with the use of a specific form.
As an example, in California, before the injury lawsuit is filed against an entity of the state, you have to give a written claim notice to the responsible agency for the accident and you need to do this in under six months. Then, the government can reject or accept your claim. When the government chooses to reject parts of the claim or the claim in its entirety, you can file an injury lawsuit.
It is very important to respect absolutely all the filing rules. While with regular injury claims everything can be straightforward, as expected, when you look for compensation from the government or the state, you will be faced with strict rules. Not respecting them can lead to simply being denied and there will be nothing that you can do. This is why the best thing you could do is to look for injury attorneys that fully understand the law governing the area where the accident took place. This helps you deal with the time limits and you will also be told exactly how the paperwork needs to be filed.
Although passengers in bus accidents rarely get seriously injured, it is still your right to be compensated and you should go for it.